The running of a successful tech conference in Boston doesn’t just happen. It needs to be considered, thought through, organized and nurtured through to its conclusion. It must contain a mix of intellectual stimulation, measured opinion and dynamic presentations that leave the attendee wanting more. It also helps if the serious business of the day can include as much fun as possible.

The folks at Games Beyond Entertainment Week figured it out.

Having spent the previous three days in a world of health, education and the promotion of healthy behavior through immersive experience, Day 4 of Games Beyond started with a keynote speech that used the theory of ‘play’ to explain the dynamics of human interaction with gaming and how we seem to have forgotten why we play games in the first place.

Chaim Gingold, an Israeli-born developer living in California, was involved in the creation of Spore and his presentation mixed popular culture with an engrossing slide-show to fully demonstrate the theory behind “the human play machine.” He believes that play is hard to define but easy to understand and whilst it feels good to play, he thinks that game designers have forgotten this most basic of principles in that play should be a physically pleasurable activity.

For an hour, as images featuring Luke Skywalker, Cary Grant, Super Mario and Pacman flashed in front of our eyes, he threw out sound-bites such as “not game design, but play design.”

“Pacman is a constantly reversing power dynamic” and (bearing in mind the Games Beyond Entertainment Week goal to complete 1,000,000 dance-steps) “you don’t have to be a trained mover to enjoy moving through space.” All of these backed up  his constant mantra of play being the important principle behind the desire for virtual immersion.

This notion became more evident in later panels as the continuing battle for video games to gain acceptance as a tool for education and rehabilitation was highlighted. Despite Chaim’s obvious enthusiasm for gaming, the conference has concentrated on serious issues and Day 4 was no exception.

In the expo room there were stands demonstrating product that can be used to help ‘at risk’ children, the problems of poor nutrition and the need for educational tools to appreciate the distinction between being taught and learning (as provided by Muzzy Lane). Panels covered subjects such as autism, cystic fibrosis, dental education, improved brain stimulation, depression and combat casualty care.

Rob Morris, a researcher at MIT Media Lab, displayed an autism programme that uses an affective computing model to motivate lower functioning individuals to want to play video games to overcome the fears that autism produces. Using a game called Bounce, the patient responds to imbedded images (or avatars) within a simple setting to ‘bounce’ items of clouds. Depending entirely on what motivates the individual sufferer – for example it could be babies, animals or even washing machines – the game relies on the process of intermittent reinforcement to move the object through this simple sounding game. However the disease itself is not quite as straightforward, and the difficulties that MIT have faced were clear to see in Morris’s shortened presentation.

This conference has been a success on so many levels that it is hard to pick out specific highlights. The sight of Serious Gamers playing on industrial dance mats is an arresting image, as is seeing a drummer from a rock band being put through a serious workout. By the same chalk, the presentations themselves have been of a consistently high quality and have been able to map out complex problems in a manner that a less informed layman can understand.

After the event is over and the international attendees have returned to their place of origin, the business of Serious Gaming will continue and the hope will be that all the excellent work being done in the fields of research and development will continue to focus on the positive nature of video games. For far too long, the gaming community has been dismissed as a serious element of society and Games Beyond Entertainment has been an excellent introduction to the possibilities that exist within and beyond the virtual world.

For this writer, my eyes have been opened and Digitalmill should be congratulated as the organizers of this conference. Serious gaming is here to stay, and the gratification that I get when I complete a level on Arkham Asylum is nothing compared to knowing that somewhere in the world video games are helping individuals to rebuild and enhance their lives.

To learn more about Games Beyond Entertainment Week, be sure to check out Thursday’s post highlighting Day 3 of the conference, Wednesday’s post covering Day 2 and Monday’s post recapping Day 1. Games Beyond Entertainment Week wrapped up on Friday, May 28 2010.